Free Press Summer Fest 2012 Preview 1 of 3 – National and International

Yes folks, it is finally time for our annual get together where we bring you a bunch of cool bands along the banks of the bayou. You sweat, you dance, you drink a lot of water, put down some beers, eat a bunch of food, hang out with some awesome folks and Joe Ortiz will go around asking everyone if they want a free hug. Who knows, Hippie Mike may return to dance for everyone’s pleasure. The point is, it’s a lot of fun so you should be there unless you are in jail, dead, or your hatred of hipsters is so great that you prefer to stay at home and watch that cable show you’ve been following every weekend because you are too cheap to pay for a DVR box. All I can tell you is that those other options are likely a lot less fun, the people watching will suck, nobody is going to put up a paint slide along a hill for you, and your chances of getting laid are either nil or the kind you wouldn’t want in the first place.

Since this year’s FPSF has so many bands, I’m sure it’s going to be overwhelming for a lot of folks so I’m going to try to help you out a bit by giving you some recommendations over the next three days in for National, Regional, and Local acts. The idea isn’t to be all-inclusive but to just make a few suggestions. If you want to post your suggestions for each day’s category in the comments, please do. Today, I’ll focus on the national and international acts. Again, feel free to make your suggestions in the comments.

Willie Nelson

First off he’s the Patron Saint of Texas Music. Secondly, any Texan will tell you as per the state constitution every Texan is required to see at least one Willie show in their lifetime. This is your chance to be a good citizen of our state and check that off your list unless you want to go with the second option provided in our constitution which is to smoke so much weed that Willie will appear before you and give you a free concert. That’s a lot of weed for one sitting and it can get really expensive so I recommend seeing him at summerfest myself. I’m really hoping he and snoop do this one…

The Flaming Lips

Some naysayers will say “been there done that” if you saw them a few years ago at Summerfest but given how great that show was I for one could do with a second round from the Oklahoma modern psych masters. Plus this combines two stoner favorites – The Lips and Pink Floyd. If they could add one of those old school planetarium starfield generators, it would be stoner nirvana.

Snoop Dogg

Hell you already have Willie! You already have the Flaming Lips doing Pink Floyd! So I kind of figure it kind of went down like this. The FPSF command center is a buzz with activity when one young recruit becomes enraged, “Damn it people, I’m tired of all this jibber jabber. Out there in the summer heat will be a lot of high folks watching Willie and the Lips and they will have paid damn good money for some primo American weed. We owe it to those hard smoking people to bring in Snoop!” A hush falls across the room. The gauntlet had been thrown and from behind the captains chair Omar scratches his chin and says, “Make it so! …..Ahead Warp six.”

The Avett Brothers

OK, time to come back down to Earth. The Avett Brothes’ rootsy, folky rock has a woody, organic, and earthy quality that should be perfect for the 7 O’clock hour on Sunday. At that point you’ve been in the heat all weekend and overwhelmed by everything – lay down in the grass and chill homies, these cats will be a great break from all the madness.

Major Laser

To take things in another direction here, this collaboration between Diplo and Switch just make for some great ass shakin’. No, nothing really deep to this recommendation, just something to get the folks dancin’. Plus, if Beyonce samples your music, you know you are a bad ass.